Does the cone that covers your cone actually do anything? Other than the obvious feeding it cold air while you had the feed on the end of it. But because it's not there anymore, it just looks like it would hinder performance

Just got done with some tinkering on my dad's 84 F150. When we started it ran like it had a Comp 268 cam in it. Real rough idle, no power, difficult to keep running. Afterwards, it runs as smooth as a Tesla, starts instantly, idles like a dream, and wouldn't even think about stalling at random.

The problem was a leak in the brake booster, and our solution was to merely cut two inches of the hose off, plug that with a large bolt, and drive it without the booster. It still stops just fine, it's just got manual brakes now. Just like my '85. We also did some tinkering with the cap and rotor, filing some corrosion off and muttering to ourselves how it needs new ones whenever we can afford to buy them.

Went to look at the Bricklin SV1 that my dad got. We got to the place and it is actually under lock down for an estate sale because the guy's dad who died owed back taxes out the ass. So we can't actually get the car and the guy fucked us over (or almost did, anyways).

My dad was p cool, when we pulled up he was all "oh no it's all locked up...... Let's sneak in, son", so we hopped the gate and went back to look at the car. :)

It was a fucking awful site. I almost cried. The Bricklin that was complete a couple years prior, when this deal began, was now this:

What body panels were left were destroyed, every bit of glass was gone, and it was rotting away. One of only 1100 SV1s left and it's already practically dead.

But I did keep a piece of it, as something of a trophy for seeing one of the many rarest cars in the world.

Probably the rarest badge I'll ever hold in my hands, from the only car to ever sport it.

It was actually a magnificent little car, but the government (who funded the project) breathing down Malcolm Bricklin's neck forced him to rush production. Had he had some more time, he could have fixed the issues with the doors, which was the major flaw. First vehicle (and maybe only) in the world to have actual powered gullwing doors, though, I do believe Jap pointed that out to me.

It was like the corvette, a fiberglass two seater sportscar, V8 RWD. But it was cooler -- Gullwings, weird styling, Canadian...

It was a great car that didn't turn out to be as great as it should have been, and I think that's why people call it a "terrible car". It wasn't really as bad as people make it out to be.

Yesterday and today, I worked on a 79' Ford F700 Tow truck, called Big Moe. Moes got a 370 7.1L V8 and needs alot of TLC, but he can still spin the tires. Moe belonged to my friend Carl's dad and his friend before his dad died. Carl now works for his dads friend as a tow truck driver and Moe has become a restore project.

Glad I went with him or he'd still be there... thing ran like shit, tranny dropped 3rd gear and 4th gear is there but refuses to play nice. So he drove it home with the timing off by a tooth on the intake side and 2 and a half gears.

But he likes it... So we're going to build a D series and drop back in there for now and then work on a D17 stroker for later.

..I would have gotten a dolly and towed that home if it were me. I don't like trying to drive a car with a bad gear, can't shake the feeling bits of the bad gear will annihilate the still good ones while I'm miles from home.

Haha, well I'm a reliability fanboy, so I prefer to avoid my own vehicle being the reason we're there. I will agree that it's fun times at times, though. I let my friends do all the breaking down, I'm the one with that rusty old heap that just won't fucking die.

On an entirely unrelated note, trying to understand Rick Santorum's logic is easier than trying to understand the wiring of 80's Fords. If it works, it works, if it doesn't work you just rewire it on your own. I'm trying to get my cig lighter to work for the first time in a decade so I can charge my phone on the go, and I decided the best course to take would be to pop down to RS, buy a few feet of somewhat thick wire, a 5a inline fuse and holder, and a few connectors. With those items I'll run a brand new 5a fused hot line to it, plenty enough for cell phone charges. I'm not even going to attempt to trace the rat's nest under my dash. The hot wire going into it right now is about six inches long before it disappears into a huge harness wrapped up in electrical tape, and from there there's no telling where it goes.

Does the cone that covers your cone actually do anything? Other than the obvious feeding it cold air while you had the feed on the end of it. But because it's not there anymore, it just looks like it would hinder performance

I know your post is 3 days old... but the cone is a velocity stack. It creates a larger vacuum of air into the intake. You'd see much more of a performance gain in a car with forced induction, but theoretically it's only a positive upgrade. In a tiny little NA motor like that, you're not going to feel anything from it though.

I know your post is 3 days old... but the cone is a velocity stack. It creates a larger vacuum of air into the intake. You'd see much more of a performance gain in a car with forced induction, but theoretically it's only a positive upgrade. In a tiny little NA motor like that, you're not going to feel anything from it though.

WHat you have is something of an inverted velocity stack.

A velocity stack is designed so that air flows from a larger area into the intake, creating a larger mass of air opposed to volume, increasing the efficiency of a tubular intake pipe:

What you have (bottom) is a velocity stack in reverse (going into your filter housing), air comes in at a set volume because the stack end is "facing the wrong way" and so the same mass of air increases in volume, leading to no gain, essentially as efficient as a straight-through intake pipe, rendering the large cone filter airbox rather pointless.